The current CIA director reportedly played on Donald Trump’s emotions to persuade him to expel dozens of Russian diplomats, using pictures of dead ducks and sick children that she claimed had been exposed to Novichok.
The New York Times reports that the president was reluctant to throw out any Russian officials in the aftermath of the Salisbury poisonings in Britain last year, until Gina Haspel, who was CIA deputy director at the time, showed him pictures of children “sickened by the Novichok” and “a photograph of ducks that British officials said were inadvertently killed by the sloppy work of the Russian operatives.”

The revelation marks the first public mention of the existence of such material which the New York Times reports had been provided by British intelligence.

At no point during the Salisbury poisoning saga have the British authorities mentioned the discovery of dead ducks or children having been made ill by poison. Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper says its government sources are not aware of any photographs having been sent to the CIA.